Clear text typed with input() from the command history

The case scenario is very simple, I am asking for a password to be typed in the command window.

I am using

    s = input('Password: ','s')

I can clear the text from the command window with something like fprintf(char(8)), but how do I clear the last typed command from the command history ?

I am aware that inputdlg() would solve the problem but I would be interested in finding some way for editing the history.

EDIT

I personally changed approach from cmd window input to GUI input and wrote a submission for the purpose: http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47210-passfield

[José-Luis]

A solution that's worse than the problem:

1. Do your thing
2. Close Matlab
3. Modify the command history file history.m (delete last line). Use prefdir() to find where it is located.
4. Reopen Matlab

I don't know if there's a way to force the IDE to update the command history. That way opening and closing Matlab wouldn't be necessary.

[Oleg Komarov]

I cannot afford to terminate the session, it's either disruptive or discretionary.

I am exactly looking for a way to refresh the IDE and I suspect that by digging into the java of the command history pane, it should be possible to find the callback for deleting one row which you can do if you select and right-click.

Answer 1

[Oleg Komarov]

After digging into the Java internals with the help of Yair's toolkit (see findJObj, uiinspect and checkClass), I found a relatively simple way to manipulate entries in the Command History:

% Get instance to the Command History
cmdhist = com.mathworks.mde.cmdhist.AltHistory.getInstance;

% Retrieve the Command History Table
chtable = findjobj(cmdhist,'property',{'name', 'CommandHistoryTable'});

% Select last row row
nrows = chtable.getRowCount
chtable.setRowSelectionInterval(nrows, nrows)

% Delete selected rows
chtable.deleteSelectedCommands

[Cedric]

Ah nice, thank you for posting back, I'm sure that it will be useful to me at one point!

[Rasmus]

I'm quite new to matlab and tires to use this code. There are one annoying side effect with the code. After the commands are executed the password will still be in the command window so i need to hit esc to not accidentally type the password again and then it is stored in the history.

How did you get around this?

[Oleg Komarov]

I recommend to use http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47210-passfield for password related input in a GUI.

Answer 2

[Cedric]

It may be a bit violent but

 com.mathworks.mlservices.MLCommandHistoryServices.removeAll

would work.

And welcome back! ;-)

[Oleg Komarov]

Thanks Cedric! Yes, a bit violent. Can't afford to lose the whole history :).